Because sometimes, God's grace in our lives, starts first with an ugly story.

Prayer….a weird and wonderful thing

A weird and wonderful sort of thing happened to me this week.

I’m on holiday and I’m staying with some friends in a top secret, undisclosed location (sorry, hardly a State secret, I just always wanted to say that!!) But, I’m loving the sun, the crickets chirping away, the relaxation and the mound of brilliant books I’m getting through, while basking in the 31 degree heat. I am basically unwinding in glorious, spectacular fashion.

But, the other night, my friends introduced me to one of their relatives. She seemed quiet, shy and I spoke to her for less than 30 seconds… but she seemed so sad. I knew very little about her, other than her mum had died a few years ago and she had some serious health problems…but it kept coming back to me; sad…sad…sad.

I went to bed and twice in the middle of the night, I woke up and she was on my mind. I was half awake but I prayed for her. The first was a groggy-eyed prayer, along the lines of asking God to give her peace and hope and then I dozed back into a fitful sleep.

A few hours later, I nodded awake again, and there it was…she was on my mind still. Again, I prayed like the time before, for hope, for peace and then the blackness of jet lag descended once more and I was out cold.

I got up late the next day, the house was quiet, but over breakfast, my friends delivered the news…the girl had tried to commit suicide in the middle of the night. Thankfully, she’d been found and had been admitted to a unit. But I couldn’t believe it and just kept saying, ‘I woke up twice and prayed for her…but I didn’t know why’.

I don’t know the specifics but I love the fact that God knew something was way wrong, even though I consciously didn’t. I don’t know if my prayers contributed to her being found…but I do know that God puts people on our heart for a reason.

And I think that even if it feels completely stupid, it’s not going to hurt anyone if I pray…and who knows what might be happening to them at that very moment? Maybe that random prayer could stop someone from tying a noose around their neck or help them to recover from an awful illness. I’ll never know, if I don’t try.